Critical essay: liberalism

Freedom is a seven letter word that everyone one wants to achieve. If an individual will be asked what thing does he/she desires that would always be his/her freedom. One word but we cannot really have it in just a snap of finger. We may have our freedom in some aspects but we cannot gain that freedom in every moment of this world that is why we have our own rules and regulations in our community, and laws in our country. We cannot do what we want in our own free will because if we can then we can just kill a person without being jailed, right? And, that would be absurd because the world will be a living disaster. However, if the realists were the pessimists who believed in war then the liberalist is the other way around. Liberalism breaks the border to attain cooperation and achieve freedom. Let’s try to discuss their movement in a broader discussion.

Galvanizing and realistic, these expressions described the condition of liberalism in a certain state. I am actually more persuaded with how the liberals think than the realists even though others were much more convinced with the latter. Right now I think almost all the countries in the world adapt liberalism in some aspects that gave similarities with the form of state that we have. One concrete example of it is the government. Let’s use Philippines as one particular example, every six years we elect new set of leaders in the government and that actually shows one dimension of liberalism which states that “ authority come from the people through election” and for me that shows unity and cooperation with the country’s people because we are given the freedom to choose who we want to put in that position to rule our country and be the leader in providing peace and order within the state. However, we blame our country’s leaders when something inappropriate happen and when our country is at risk but in the first place we are the one who chose them. Alongside, I think that’s one of the weaknesses of liberalism because people were given so much freedom where power is overused in a wrong way.

One thing that I’m also perceived of is when liberalism stated “ individuals as relevant actors” because yes, I believed that we are significant for the state to achieve progress because if the individuals won’t do their rightful tasks as a citizen then the state will not be as peaceful as what we expected but even though we are considered relevant we are also the one who causes war and if there’s no war then a state won’t achieve success because we need to learn how to fight for what we aim for because for me if there’s no such thing as war then there’s no change and progress which the liberals wanted to happen, progress of human affairs and this statement contradicts my belief for the liberals. In this aspect I disagree with liberals and go on with the realists.

Government must intervene domestically and internationally even if it causes war because a state can’t stand alone without the help of the organizations in the different parts of the world. States cannot make themselves an own world government because that would be absurd because a state has its own strengths and weaknesses that gives them competition to one another so it will be completely unbelievable to achieve cooperation in that aspect and more likely a war can be created. Moreover, we cannot free the state from the influence of others and have self-determination because those influences manages a state to improve and gain new ideas. Thus, government intervention is also applicable to the so called “ free market” because giving those private businesses a freedom to sell without rules will be a total riot because it can be used the other way around for they will use the power to control the people’s minds and that would greatly affect the state.

In conclusion, liberalism was able to be adapted with how the states move today but we cannot just spread freedom and have a stable peaceful environment because that would be clearly impossible for me because I myself believe in the theory of realism when it comes to war and that’s contradicting for the liberals because they believed that war is immoral but for me war strengthens the state and gives success to them. Therefore, liberals were at their safe zone wherein they look more positive and focuses on achieving peace but it’s not just about staying at peace and securing what you have but more on surviving with great power. It’s about having a change and progress within the state.